More than 40 percent of the projects submitted under the RJAAC received no positive response whatsoever. In good conscience, I cannot write that they were denied support, because that framework is not supposed to provide support—it is supposed to invest in Culture, with a capital “C.” The current Regional Director should know this well, having herself been part of several organizations that, in the past, benefited from the program in order to survive and continue fostering our cultural heritage and collective identity.
More than 40 percent of applications rejected means that a substantial portion of cultural organizations and practitioners now face an increasingly difficult future. We are speaking of people who will no longer have the means to realize their ideas, but who may also struggle simply to survive and continue feeding the machinery of island Culture. The Culture that is neither produced by, nor should ever be produced by, the Regional Directorate—much less by the Secretariat itself. The Culture that will fade away in the fog of stubbornness from those who refused to listen.
This process was subject to consultations, it is true. Theatre groups, artistic companies, philharmonic bands, cultural organizations, and independent cultural agents were summoned to meetings with the Regional Secretary and her chief of staff—who, according to the corridors of Bettencourt Palace, still answers to her predecessor. Meetings were held. Proposals were presented. Solutions were offered. I know them all. Indeed, I drew upon part of that collective reflection when preparing the amendment proposal to the RJAAC that, as a member of parliament, I worked to bring before the Regional Assembly. At one point, a Movement was even created to defend Culture and those who make it possible.
It was all for nothing.
The Secretary did not want to know. The meetings took place while different people occupied the leadership of the Regional Directorate. The instability surrounding that position may well be the result of all these storms. Yet it cannot serve as an excuse. The technical staff remained the same. There has been more than enough time. And still, nobody cared. The Regional Directorate for Culture failed in every aspect of its mission toward cultural agents. That is the hard reality.
It failed even in the process of oversight and implementation. A platform was created. Resources were invested in its operation. Then, when criticism arrived and flaws were identified, the leadership of the Directorate merely shrugged its shoulders and looked the other way. The result was complete failure. The Secretary failed. The new Director failed—despite possessing the knowledge that might have put a stop to all this. The technical leadership failed as well. In good conscience, I cannot blame the employees, for they merely carry out instructions. Everything else failed.
Forty percent of projects have effectively died. Organizations will wither. Activities will disappear. Anniversaries and commemorations will pass unmarked.
At the beginning of this year, the disastrous meeting with the heads of the Directorate’s external services became public knowledge, where it was announced that there was no money to do anything at all. At the time, some speculated that this was merely a way of diverting funds toward the Culture Capital initiative in Ponta Delgada. The truth is that these resources failed to fulfill their purpose. And, frankly, the Culture Capital project itself hardly merits discussion, for there are no words capable of describing it, no matter how much literature one reads—or consumes.
The result is before us.
A cultural sector that had been ailing for years has now been pushed closer to its grave. However many alternative sources of funding may exist, the Regional Secretariat cannot abdicate its responsibility. After all, it is itself a product of Autonomy.
The managers are already standing with shovels in hand.
It falls to us to prevent the burial.
Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives on Terceira Island in the Azores. She is a regular contributor to several Azorean newspapers, a political and cultural activist, and has served in the Azorean Parliament.
NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with a sense of the significant perspectives on some of the archipelago’s issues.
Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL).